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Tehran: Iran resumed atomic fuel research yesterday, drawing fierce Western criticism, and the UN nuclear watchdog said the research would involve small-scale enrichment of uranium, useable in power plants or weapons. "Iran's nuclear research centres have restarted their activities," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told state television. He denied, however, that Iran intended to produce any nuclear fuel. "There is a difference between research and producing nuclear fuel ... The production of nuclear fuel is still under suspension," Saeedi said. The United States said any Iranian nuclear enrichment would be a "serious escalation". A White House spokesman said Iran risked referral to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions, if it pursued its present nuclear course.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he will meet his French and German counterparts tomorrow to discuss Iran's referral to the UN Security Council over the issue. Straw said Iran's move "creates a serious situation for the international community" and he planned the meeting with EU's Javier Solana, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Mohammad Al Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the IAEA's 35-nation governing board that Iran intended to carry out limited uranium enrichment at its Natanz facility, where it broke UN seals as inspectors watched. "Iran plans to install a small-scale gas ultracentrifuge cascade in its pilot fuel enrichment plant at Natanz," a Western diplomat said, reading from Al Baradei's report. The research would involve feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into the centrifuges, which can purify uranium to a low level for nuclear power plant fuel or to a higher level for weapons. Saeedi said the IAEA would monitor the work in Natanz, an underground plant in central Iran that Tehran concealed from UN inspectors until an Iranian exile group revealed its existence in August 2002. Adding to the tension, exiled Iranian opposition figure Alireza Jafarzadeh alleged yesterday that Tehran has secretly built around 5,000 centrifuge machines for installation at the atomic plant in Natanz. Looking back - September 17, 2005: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells the UN that it is Iran's "inalienable right" to produce nuclear fuel and rejects European offer of economic incentives to halt enrichment programme.
- September 24: The UN's nuclear watchdog passes a resolution calling Iran's nuclear programme illegal and illogical.
- November 24: The European Union accuses Iran of possessing documents used solely for the production of nuclear arms and warns of possible referral to UN Security Council.
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